Lucia Salinas
08/06/2021 20:23
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 08/06/2021 20:23
Chamber II of the Criminal Cassation Chamber,
confirmed
the sentence handed down in 2018 against José López, the former secretary of Public Works of the Kirchner government.
He is charged with illicit enrichment and other crimes with a
unified
sentence
of seven years and six years in prison
.
Thus, López was sentenced to that penalty, a
fine of 60 percent of the value of the enrichment and perpetual absolute disqualification from
holding public office.
.
In this way, he will continue to serve until his sentence is served on December 14, 2023, although before he could obtain house arrest or parole.
Cassation had already set a bond
of 85 million pesos
so that he can have house arrest.
Three years after the sentence, Chamber II of the Criminal Cassation Chamber, made up of judges Carlos Mahiques, Alejandro Slokar and Guillermo Yacobucci,
rejected this Friday a series of appeals from José López's defense
and thus confirmed the accusatory sentence that weighs on the crime of illicit enrichment.
In the resolution, the chambermaids maintained that López "
provided multiple and different versions of the events
and the alleged origin of the money with the intention of improving his position in the process and coinciding with the benefits obtained as a collaborator before actors of files in which he is being investigated for different crimes against the public administration ".
When confirming the accusation, they indicated that the former official K
sought to benefit
from "a political context that allowed him, at the time of his statement, to accommodate his procedural situation and, eventually, to question the origin of the money that was verified from his property".
For their part, the businessmen Andrés Enrique Galera and Eduardo Ramón Gutiérrez saw the conditional execution penalty of 2 years and 6 months in prison confirmed, with a fine of 50% of the value of the enrichment.
Regarding José López's wife, the highest criminal court requested that the Court
modify
the sentence handed down, by changing her participation in the investigated maneuvers in the analysis of the case.
On the other hand, the chambermaid Mahiques acquitted those two businessmen involved in the case, arguing that "the acquisition and refurbishment of the property in question did not imply an unjustified increase in López's assets, nor did the alleged interposers have bought the property. in order to hide this enrichment ".
But that vote remained
in the minority
.
The sentence will be definitively final, after the modification of the Criminal Procedure Code, when
the Supreme Court of Justice
decides on the matter
.
The accusatory sentence in this case was accelerated when in 2016 he was arrested in the General Rodríguez convent where he sought to hide bags with US $ 9 million.
López received his first conviction in a corruption case in 2018 when he was sentenced by the Federal Oral Court 1 (TOF 1) to six years in prison for the crime of illicit enrichment, in the case where he was investigated for the bags with US $ S 9 million that in June 2016 he sought to hide in a General Rodríguez convent.
That case, later,
was unified
with the file filed in the provincial justice, for the possession of weapons: the former official K has seven years in prison.
The judges Ricardo Basílica, Adrián Grünberg and José Michilini, members of TOF 1, found the former secretary of Public Works of Cristina Kirchner responsible for the crime of illicit enrichment, as the author of the same, disbelieving in his argument that he maintained that the money he sought to hide in the early morning of that June 14, it
did not belong to him
.
According to the Justice, the judged maneuver did not work alone. The sentence reached as a secondary participant in the illicit enrichment of López's wife, Amalia Díaz, to two years of probation, for which
she was not detained
.
The TOF 1 at that time, did not find sufficient evidence to blame the nun Celia Inés Aparicio and ruled her acquittal.
Likewise, Marcos Marconi and Marcos Gianni obtained acquittal in the case.
The image of the early morning of June 14, 2016, showed a desperate José López trying to hide in a convent of General Rodríguez several bags with almost 9 million dollars, 153,000 euros, 59,000 pesos;
Rolex watches and jewelry valued at $ 452,000 and guns.
That day he was given preventive detention, which from this Wednesday became his sentence for enrichment.
Confiscation was ordered of these seized assets and money, which for the first time brought López to the dock.
Said funds were allocated to a social purpose for and were made available in equal parts to the Garrahan Pediatric Hospital and the Gutiérrez Children's Hospital in equal parts.
Even during the pandemic, part of the funds were applied to the purchase of supplies.
Also, as part of the investigation,
the confiscation
of the Dique Luján house valued at U $ S 480,000
was ordered
, the former official K maintained that he was renting the property, but the Justice maintained that he sought to hide the ownership of the property.
For the federal justice system, there was sufficient evidence to “have as proven the illicit enrichment of López and his wife, and in particular the purchase of the land and the construction of the house located in Dique Luján, the department of Las Heras street and the possession of the money found in the Monastery ”.
The prosecutor of the Miguel Ángel Osorio trial, had considered that during his time in the public function, “López increased his assets by a scandalously high amount that can in no way be justified (…) which shows that behind this spurious money there are hidden acts of corruption ”.
The three facts
López came to trial for
three facts
: "the unjustified possession in his patrimony of the money from the bags where there were 9 million dollars and 452,600 pesos in jewelry," the purchase and renovation of a house in Tigre, which López claimed to rent, and justice He determined that it was his property and it was valued at $ 480,000.
Finally, he was processed for the purchase of the Buenos Aires apartment Las Heras 2030 avenue. There he would have used the company "Marketing y Eventos SA" as a screen.
The value of the property is $ 110,000.
López seeks to be released on parole, having been detained for more than five years.
A bond of $ 85 million was set on him.
The former official who is accused-collaborator in the case of the "bribery notebooks", after having declared in this regard before the prosecutor in the case, Carlos Stornelli and Judge Claudio Bonadio, maintained that he does not have funds to face said caution.
